path to purchase

Over the last couple years we have heard a lot about the automotive path to purchase which according to the word on the street now means digital and in many cases only digital even though most major automotive brands are still using print, radio, TV, Magazines etc. Well for those of you who believe that path is 100 per cent a digital path nothing could be further from the truth. Not only does print continue to play a role in the path to purchase it continues to have a major impact.

A recent Brand Spark survey completed for Metroland consumers were asked when planning for an automotive purchase what sources of information do they reference to best prepare for a purchase. 36 per cent of respondents said they used printed flyers and 21 per cent said their Metroland community newspaper. This says 57 per cent use print to prepare for an automotive purchase. Another Metroland study “Pulse” which is their 3rd party intent to purchase over the next 12 months study with over 5000 respondents also supports the automotive path to purchase for the newspaper industry. Pulse tracks automotive intent to spend data on everything from service to new car sales. New car sales alone within the Metroland network show a $20 billion spend over the next 12 months. Remember this survey was completed on the Metroland network so it shows the dollars available using Metroland newspapers. A Newspapers Canada study by Totum in 2016 researching automotive path to purchase over the past 2 years also supports print. Their study showed that 7 out of 10 new car buyers are reading automotive ads in printed newspapers. Lastly a recent study by IPSOS “Connecting for action report” focusing on direct mail showed that impact on digital advertising is much greater when combined with direct mail. One highlight I took from that study was that arousal was 26 per cent higher when direct mail followed digital display.

There are many studies out there that support print advertising in terms of impact for automotive path to purchase so if you are skeptical do some research. If you want to sit down and review Metroland’s Pulse, Brand spark or the Newspapers Canada study I would be happy to share and discuss that data in further detail.